ChristyPark

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Jun 30, 2014

My first time to Bacolod, Philippines has been an enriching one. Visited Banago slums and feels heart broken upon seeing the living conditions and how these children are suffering from abused both physically and emotionally, the places that they sleep, roaming around the streets with no guardians protecting them etc. Majority of the children in the slums are not in school and many are forced to work or steal for their family. Above pic, with children who are picked, rescued and raised by the Fishers and Loaves in Bacolod. It is interesting to look straight into their eyes, as each pair of their eyes tells a story.

Fishes and Loaves is an organisation that helps the welfare and beings of the children in the slums. They provide feeding programmes for 2 meals daily from Monday to Saturday. Besides feeding programmes, the organisation also aids in providing basic English lessons to the children from the slums. Some of these children has been put into scholarship programmes, mainly sponsored by donars and volunteers from overseas. A handful are still waiting for sponsors to provide for their school fees.

Pastora Elaine Eleazer is providing pastora care to these children and here are some of them who got baptised in church. Rejoice!

Children sing praises to God before lunch is served. This is their way of saying grace and giving thanks to God for every meal daily.

Adorable bunch having their lunch. We cooked this lunch for them during our time spent there. There are about 150 children both from Fishes and Loaves centre and children from the slums (who are not regular at the Fishes and Loaves) Above pic are the regular kids. One can never tell that these kids sleep under a bridge. They do not stay over at Fishes and Loaves, what they do is only have their meals there, bathe and put on their uniforms for school and hang-out till evening before they go back to their respective home (under the bridge).

These two boys are from the slums. They come to Fishes and Loaves to get their daily lunch and dinner. They are not regular kids, but they will be one day.

Lovely children, they taught me love, honor and joy despite of what they had gone through. Now they have puffy cheeks before that they were all very skinny.

Rainbow clouds, A rare scene in Bacolod. The first ever miraculous sign appears right after the children dances, sing praises and worships songs in front of the Governor's building! A sign of God's promises for the little ones. They were so overjoyed by this scene! The rainbow clouds later formed a stairways to heaven and on to a huge heart shape! We should have taken the cloud transformation process pictures! Also while we were there, it was raining heavily outside the lagoon compound and the inside (where we were), were all dry! There was also a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Bacolod at that time and we didn't even feel a single tremor!

Adorable little ones. They are prayer warriors! Some see Jesus appears to them.

We went on to another children home which unfortunately I cannot disclose any of their pictures due to privacy and sensitive issues. The home is very well run and has about 20 over children being rescued from abandonment, being abused and tortued by parents or their relatives. Some even have their limps and legs cut off by their parents and left outside the gate of this home. It was a heart breaking moment for me during my visit there. On one incident, while I stood down to say hello to a little disabled boy, he came over me and hugged me so tight that I hardly could breathe and he stroke my back! It was that stroke of his hand that I began to cry. He is giving out love despite of his physical disability.

Above pic is the holy cow kitchen in the home compound and they have about 20 cows that provide daily milk and ice cream for the children. How beautiful! They started with two cows and it multiplied to 20! The home has also a land that grows vegetables, herbs and fruits for their daily consumption.

Back to children from Fishes and Loaves. When there are no more space to eat, they climbed onto the truck to have their lunch. Each and everyone have to finish their food before they can put down their plates into the basin. No food wastage is allowed.

We bought them ice cream and they were so overjoyed! Some of them have never eaten ice cream in their entire life.

This boy is so happy with his ice cream!

Shall end off here with this verse.

Jesus said "Let the little children come to Me" Matthew 19:14

I will be flying up to Bacolod again sometime next April/May 2015. This will be my regular volunteer work place aside from Pemba, Mozambique, South Africia. I have never regreted going to Pemba, as that was the place that got me started on mission trips. Heidi Baker and team has taught me great lessons and I was touched by what they have been doing in Africa. People had asked me why to the Africa and not Asia for a start, I had told them, if I need to go and experience a real mission trip, it has to be Africa as there is no point going to a place that has everything! Once a while, one needs to experience a place that has no basic necessities such as water, electricity and even food~ to feel for ourselves how and what it's like when there is nothing, and often if you are out of your comfort zone, you appreciate things in life even more!

I am suppose to blog about Pemba but have not done so. Need to get down my thoughts to write as that was a totally different adventure and super exciting one. Upcoming soon!

Apr 21, 2014

This year birthday treats has got to be one of the best :) My hubby knows me too well bcos I love raw fish. Ok it's known as sashimi :p and I can never have enough! You give me a plate, I can finished it all in 1 min? Yup I can, not joking!

Lobsters Salmon roll, one of my favourite! We ordered like 3 plates and finished it all up at one go!

Ok, my 5 year old niece choose this strawberry cake for me, kind of my favourite, but she said she must have the strawberry cake in order to celebrate birthday with me!

What else to do on my birthday? Need not say, dance if I have the opportunity! I have been away from dance for almost 2 years. I meant away as in, dancing solid solid not those rehearsal, marking type of dance. It's a long story as in why I am away from dance, I kind of injured myself from a wakeboarding incident out at sea almost 2 years ago and that led me dropped out of my ballet. Lesson learned from this incident, that is dancers, should avoid wakeboarding and any other intense sports at all times! You never know what will happened to you out on those intense sport! My board flew off and hit my right knee and I had a ligament tear and at present though recovered, it gives me on and off kind of pain when I bend my knee too much! Anyway, I went back to dance on my birthday, and I was so thrill to be able to dance and of course my knee restricted some of the dance movements, but I managed to slow down on movements that send pain to my knee. Ok being wiser at this age, should not "chiong" all the way as in my younger days. Nothing beats listening to my own body. Be wise if I want to continue dancing at this age!

The last I took a picture with this old friend of mine (Ryan Tan, Creative Director of Oschool) was about 12 years ago. It has been a privilege to know him as he was the one who inspired me to dance :) Never will I forget the day he tortured us on our warm up during his class! Of course, I am going back to dance once again and glad to pick up the challenge of remembering the choreography as fast as a running CPU!

My two kawaii dance enthusiastic girl friends also came and join me!

Ashitalia Virgin White Sneaker is the best present I got from my birthday! I have been wanting to get this for the longest time, but the hefty price tag turns me away. This sneaker is cool, made of authentic leather and it's got to be the most comfortable sneaker in the world. Leather is extremely soft! I am eyeing on the spikes grey leather one already :p Ash_Italia is orignated from Italy and it is now very popular in the US and many celebrities and rock band members wear them :) It has now been a fashion icon be it NY, France, Italy and UK. You can read more about ashitalia on their website ash_italia

Here is me wearing ashitalia :) I often go on a road trip, and this sneaker is very useful on those road trips and mission trips!

My hubby loves beef. Recently I had a taste of this wagyu beef at Paul in Takashimaya. Apart from all the pastries, cakes etc. I am surprised that they serve good wagyu beef! This is so tender and juicy and melts in the mouth. If you ever head to Takashimaya, try it! Paul is located at level 3 of Takashimaya, Ngee Ann City, Orchard Road.

I was suppose to go to stylist, Sio last December, but had to cancel the appointment as I was referred to another celebrity stylist in Chez Vouz. That was how I had my beautiful turquoise hair for CNY. No regrets to being adventurous and trying something out of the box. By now, you can see lots of turquoise head on the streets and mrt!

Back to Sio, I finally went to him at Cleo Hair last Sunday and I was blown away with Sio's creative work! Not only is he creative, as I observed, the rest of the stylists (all Japanese stylists) were very creative and attentive to their customers. Sio went on to design the colour mixture for me after checking my hair and the texture. According to him, my fringe is a little damage and hair needs to grow out more. Been wanting to go back to lighter ash or brown, but he settled for a darker ash and I left it all to him.

I must say I had the best hair treatment in my life, experiencing the latest technology of hair steaming with special water, lying down at the sink! The result of the hair texture after treatment is gorgeous! My hair feels so smooth not only for a day, but till now. Sio did everything by himself and there was no shampoo boy, no colourist etc. He basically design his own hair colour mixture, hair-cut, treatment, check and blow dry cum style for every of his customer. I was truly satisfied and happy. He has a pair of magic hands :) There are a few set one can choose from the menu and the most recommendable one is the $300 set which includes hair colour, cut and treatment. There is no extra charge for long hair and whether you have short or long hair, charges applies the same! It is more worth if you have long hair ;)

Back in those days, I have been to Japanese hairstylists, and all of my favourite stylists have already moved out of Singapore. It is extremely hard to find good jap stylist in Singapore! Sio is very extremely popular as blogger Qiu Qiu has blogged about him and Cleo hair and he is also her stylist :) In order for first timer to book him, one needs to pay $30 extra on top of the set selection (for only 1 time) and subsequent no charges.

I still can't make up of my hair colour. It's kind of ash and ash grey at the vertical gradient on both sides, but yet it looks purplish and lavender. At certain lighting it looks like yam colour ;p

Sio now fills the empty spot of my jap stylist and I have already booked him in advance for my next visit. Lots of wedding to attend this year and a need to make advance stylist booking!

I have not have a decent break since last November and going for a short holiday is not always on my agenda :) My travel trip is always at least 2 weeks. I was blessed with a short trip to Nongsa Point Marina by my dear sister in law who is visiting Singapore from Potugual. Every expenses were paid by her including our meals for the two nights stay. How wonderful right? Nothing is for free and in my case, I need to find out yatch and boat docking information from the Nongsa club for her :) But I really enjoyed this short rest and feeling very rejuvanated! Thanks to her!

I don't remember taking shots in my bikinis ever since 10 years ago, was hesistant to take it at first, but in the end took it anyway because I find my green hair that matches with my bikinis very amusing :p The coordination was not planned on purpose though. Overall, I had real fun playing with my phone camera at the pool :) Unable to swim due to hair colouring? Do play with your gadgets or catch a drama by the pool.

Indonesian food has always been my love, especially nasik goreng! I had it at Turi beach cafe which serves very good Indonesian food. But do not try their buffet as it is not worth the money. By the way, Nongsa is walking distant to Turi beach by a short cut route with beautiful sea view! Beware of Monkeys though! The complimentary breakfast at Nongsa is very normal and not much of a variety. The overall, hotel is clean and I love the white and blue nautical concept deco of the room and the beautiful nostalgic bathroom and the hotel lobby :) My room comes with a back gate that overlook the sea and the yatches. I had my coffee at the porch every morning and evening, enjoyed the cool sea breeze too!

Feb 17, 2014

Are you wondering why I am into my Converse phase? There's a reason behind and it's a meaningful one.

I gave my favourite pair of grey limited edition Converse shoes to one of the kid in Pemba Mozambique while I was there doing mission work. Children over there do not have the luxury of wearing covered shoes as they are either orphans or very poor to even own a pair of slipper. Many of them walked barefooted under the scotching sun and some of their feet got cut and with open wounds, thus resulted having their flesh eaten by worms. Some died from this flesh eating worms attacking their body.

Having witnessed this, I feel that I could do better. At that time I only brought 3 pairs of shoes with me. 1 pair Converse, 1 pair slippers and 1 pair loafer. I chose to give away my precious Converse and slipper away.

No regrets, I have since then decided to give away 1 pair of Converse for each mission trip . This May, I am heading to the dump at bacolod, Philippines and I am ready to give a pair of Converse shoes away.